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Washington, DC – Today, officials at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Agency are meeting to review the 32 contracts that they hold with state and local governments to deputize local law enforcement officers to act as immigration agents in jails as well as a proposal to add 6 new contracts. A coalition of 63 organizations have sent a letter to Jeh Johnson, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and Sarah Saldaña, Director of ICE, demanding that the Obama Administration terminate the program immediately.

Zenen Jaimez Perez, Policy & Advocacy Analyst for United We Dream said, “While the Obama Administration has made headlines with their calls for better community policing and against racial profiling, they continue pushing the 287(g) program on local governments even though it has been proven to be a cause of racially motivated bias and has eroded community trust in police.”

“Immigrant youth and families have ended up racially profiled, locked up, abused and deported because of the 287(g) program and we are calling on our local governments to ditch these dangerous contracts. We are fighting for the day when our communities can live without fear of the police,” said Raul Alcaraz Ochoa, Deportation Defense Organizer.

In the letter, the groups state that: “The 287(g) program harms community trust in police and all residents’ right to unbiased law enforcement. It also creates the atmosphere that leads to civil rights violations and racial profiling that primarily affect communities of color and immigrants. We urge DHS and ICE to terminate all existing 287(g) agreements and to reject all pending applications immediately.”

The letter is signed by national and local groups including United We Dream, the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Domestic Workers’ Alliance, National Day Labor Organizing Network, the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights, the National Center for Transgender Equality, the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyer’s Guild, the Immigrant Legal Resource Center and 57 more.

###United We Dream is the largest immigrant youth-led organization in the nation, a powerful nonpartisan network made up of 55 local groups in 26 states. UWD organizes and advocates for the dignity and fair treatment of immigrant youth and families, regardless of immigration status. We seek to address the inequities and obstacles faced by immigrant youth and believe that by empowering immigrant youth, we can advance the cause of the entire community—justice for all immigrants. You can find more about UWD online at www.unitedwedream.org